Calling
by ReWriteInsanity
Summary: Neku, unlucky enough to be a returning champion in the Reaper's Game attempts to survive a week with his new 'partner'. This is gonna get Zetta hectic. Probable hints of NekuXShiki. R&R Thanks
1. Day 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of The World Ends With You characters or it's original plot line. I give credit to their respective owners.**

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Day 1: The World Stops For You

Joshua and I held our guns pointed at each other. The fate of Shibuya was on my shoulders. I could've fired and ended everything.. But I couldn't.. I'm not sure why, but I couldn't pull the trigger, I remember the beads of sweat and tears drop from my face and crash into the floor. I just dropped my arms, gun-in-hand, and heard a gun shot

I slowly opened my eyes, I could hear the traffic lights changing signals, the sound of footsteps all around me.. and through me. The Scramble Crossing. I took a huge breath, and cried into the skies.

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

Those tears almost escaped me again as I dropped to my knees. This was the fourth time being sent back to this god forsaken game. Some say the third time's the charm.. I've proven them wrong.

I finally stood up, no mission mail yet, I rummaged my pockets for the one thing that's been with me through this entire game. I pulled out a small black object with a white skull imprinted on it. A player pin. Definate confirmation that I was in the reaper's game, and this time, I'll get out for sure.

My phone beeped, the mission had arrived. I flipped it open examining the contents:

"_Find a Partner,_

_Get to 104._

_10 minutes or face erasure."_

Tch. I could've guessed, the first mission is always the same. I winced as I felt the timer burn into my skin, accompanied by green frogs which appeared out of no where. Looks like the noise are on time as usual. I jumped back, avoiding one of the frogs, and set my eyes in the direction of Hachiko. Hachiko had become the best place to find players, it'd been where I first met Shiki.. then Joshua. I hope I can find a good partner.

I arrived at the dog statue and glanced all around me, "Are there any players out there?! Someone call back to me!"

I sensed something coming and rolled to the side out of instict, looking back at where I once stood I saw the frog noise again, this time accompanied by kangaroos. Black ones. The taboo noise were back, and I was left with no partner to erase them with. Damn it.

I was suddenly surrounded by a bright light. A pact!? With who? My eyes darted about, trying to find my partner.

"Pay attention Hectopascal!"

...Oh god no.

I narrowly jumped back, avoiding a kangaroo noise crashing down ontop of me. Despite my partner, it still gave me my fighting ability back. I pulled out a velocity pin, rushing forwards and crashing through all the noise. I'd managed to erase most of the frog noise, and heavily damage the kangaroo noise. Before I could reach into my pocket for another pin, the rest were suddenly erased.

"Too zetta easy." After two weeks trying to survive him, he's become my partner in all of this. It didn't seem right. "What's wrong Hectopascal? Surprised to see me?"

"You're my partner?" I couldn't help but sneer abit.

"That's right radian." Sho smirked at me. "That composer put me back in this game as a player, and he recommended that you'd make a good partner!"

...I'll kill that silver haired little.. "Whatever." I sighed heavily.

We made it to 104 with plenty of time to spare, the timers from our hands were wiped and I leaned on the wall of the building. "You still didn't answer my question, Heaper."

"Yes radian. 2 + 2 is 4."

"Shut it Math Geek." I crossed my arms in annoyance. "Why are you here? I thought Joshua erased you."

"Like I said. When I got trashed by the composer, he sent me back here from being a reaper to a player as my punishment. Should've erased me when he had the chance, but I guess he's letting me off easy this time." He shrugged as he looked away from me, keeping his hands in his pockets.

He'd better not screw me over. With all he's done to me.. To everyone.. He'd better be prepared for the rebound of all of it.

I stood there and stared at 104, I recalled a memory of when Shiki dragged me all around that place looking for clothing. At first I thought it was a pain, but as I found out that new clothes changed the way the charts are, I knew that I'd be the one worrying about stats while Shiki worries about style.

We contrasted way too much on that subject.

I wondered into the shops, browsing for a shirt that would help protect me from damage or anything that would help me chain more combos.

I changed into the new clothes that I had bought, my final outfit was a mix of different brands. I kept the hood on my D+B Jacket up, I kept the Grim Heaper's hat on as well, I glanced into a mirror as I walked out of the shop, I couldn't even recognise myself. Usually I would be in a sleveless shirt and shorts, but I found myself looking a bit like a reaper. I shrugged as I raised my headphones off my neck and back onto my ears. As I moved forwards, turning away from the mirror, I bumped into someone; a girl who was a bit shorter than I was, a green clip in her hair, glasses, ordinary clothing, pretty much your run-of-the-mill average girl.

Atleast that's what I thought, until I saw a little stuffed toy poking out of her bag.

Piggy.

I didn't want Shiki to notice me in here, it would worry her that I was thrown back into the game again for a fourth time.. "S-sorry" I mumbled as I passed her, keeping my eyes forwards. I think she might have noticed me, she tried calling out but I ignored her and kept walking. I probably vanished into thin air as soon as I stepped out of the door. I turned to see if she really had noticed me to find her standing outside of the shop looking around. Curious, I reached into my pocket and flipped the player pin into the air, catching it as it twirled back down to earth. "Open up your senses" I said to myself, focusing into Shiki's thoughts.

_That... That guy just now.. He looked so familiar, yet... Who was that?_

Huh? I guess she didn't realize who I was.. Good, it's better that she didn't know. I faintly saw Shiki re-enter the shop when my entire world went black.

That was the end of Day 1.


	2. Day 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of The World Ends With You characters or it's original plot line. I give credit to their respective owners.**

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Day 2: Trust your partner

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling groggy, I sat up and held my head in my hand. "About time you woke up." I glanced over to my right to see the Grim Heaper leaning on a wall. "We're at the underpass, but we're blocked in. No mission mail yet either." I watched him take out his cell phone, every now and again pushing a couple of buttons. I stood up and stretched out.

"You're up early." I said groggily, I shook my head trying to focus my eyes. "You weren't planning anything while I was asleep were you?" Sho merely laughed a 'No', he walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. He was considerably taller than I was though.

"That guy, Hanekoma did say that trusting your partner is your best option right?" He smirked at me. I pushed his hand off of my shoulder and walked towards the invisible wall. I reached out and felt the static react to my hand, yet I watched as regular people passed through as if nothing was there. "So, why the change of clothes? Figured a Hectopascal like you needed the change? Well I can agree with the hat. Not so sure about everything else though." I could just hear the snark in his tone. Tempting as it was to just knock in out in one punch, he was right about what Mr. H said, if I want to make it through this game, I'm gonna have to trust my partner. No matter who it is.

Just then a beep came from both of our phones, I flipped it open to find today's mission:

"_Trust your partner; find and hunt the noise._

_30 minutes or face erasure._

_Here's a hint: Trust."_

I scoffed at the message, it seemed pretty simple, but it seemed a bit too simple for this game, and what the hell does it mean by that hint!? I close my phone and slide it back into my pants pocket. My new reaper outfit consisting of such. Despite how I look right now, these clothes are close to top 3 on the chart listings.

"Here it comes.." I sighed to myself, already holding up my hand ready to see the timer on it.

Right on cue, the timer appeared, followed by the burning sensation. I could never get used to that.

I watched as the numbers counted down for a moment, I turned to the Grim Heaper and watched as he put away his phone. "Alright, let's do this!" He grinned wildly. I'm not sure what he had in mind, but I get the feeling it won't be good for me.

I checked for the invisible wall again, this time it was open, "Right, let's go." I sighed again. I lead the way out of the Station Underpass and found myself at the Hachiko statue. "So, any clues on what we should do? It did say to FIND the noise, so I doubt this'll be easy."

"Don't look at me; I thought you were the 3 time champ here." he answered. He left the thinking to me then? I sighed to myself silently. Figures, the math geek wouldn't know how to solve a riddle, but the only way to trust your partner that I can think of.. Is to help one another in the heat of battle.. I pulled out my player pin and scanned the area.

"Sho, we're going into battle, get ready." I ignored any comments he made, positive or not and continued scanning. After a full minute, I couldn't find any noise at all.. "What the..." I tried scanning again, but nothing came up. "I.. can't find anything.." I looked over to Sho who was also trying to scan for noise sigils. By the looks of things he was having about as much luck as I was.

"I can't sense a single yectogram of these things either." He looked a bit annoyed, probably expecting a fight. "Let's split up!" He shouted, running off in a direction. Is he nuts!? He won't be able to take on the noise alone! And if he does find anything, will he end up fighting alone, or will I be going into battle with him? Ugh, I never thought about this before, with Shiki, Beat and even Joshua, we stayed close during our missions. This is the first time I've had a partner who decided to take off on his own. I run after him, scanning for more noise along the way.

As I run past the dog statue, I hear a familiar voice.

_Neku.._ I stop in my tracks, and slowly turn to the source. _Neku... Where are you? We decided to meet here.. after the game..._

Shiki.. she continued to wait for me, despite me being back in the game. After her being my entry fee to my second round, I thought she would have been offended.. to just be taken like that. I take a step closer to her, I realise that her real self is shorter than I thought she was yesterday.. She was still holding onto that toy, she looks alot like a lost child right now.. I shook it off and mouthed an 'I'm sorry' to her, knowing that she couldn't see me. After a moment, I turned and continued after Sho.

I found myself at the scramble, looking around, I was unable to find the Heaper anywhere. Either I took longer than I thought with Shiki, or he can run really fast.. I attempted to scan the area, hoping to find any kind of static or noise.

Atleast 15 minutes passed, Sho couldn't be found anywhere, and I couldn't find any noise at all.. I'm not sure whether to be relieved or worried. After making my way to Mocai, I found him; Sho leaning on the wall of the building. "About zetta time you got here." He smirked at me; "I found the noise, but I thought I'd wait for you to get here before I got too close." That smirk of his still managed to piss me off. I scoffed as I scanned the area with my player pin. I managed to locate the static. I turned my head to find a giant noise sigil just hovering over a girl. It looked like Shiki from when she went into the game.. So, that mean's that she must have been... Eri? "Cute girl huh?" I remembered that Sho had never met Shiki at all in the game, as in my second and third time playing I was with Joshua and Beat..

I stayed quiet for a moment; "Whatever." I stepped towards Eri, I scanned her thoughts trying to find out what was wrong with her:

_Ugh, why has Shiki been so distant to me now? Ever since she got back from the hospital she's been waiting infront of that Dog statue for hours. Is she waiting for someone? If so, why doesn't she just tell me instead of just brushing me off!?_

_  
Grrr.. This just pisses me off so much. I just want the old Shiki back.. I want my old partner back._

I slid the player pin back into my pocket, taking my headphones off of my head and hanging them around my neck. "You know, you should try taking the headphones off your head more. A radian like you would lose their hearing if you constantly keep it on."

I didn't look at Sho, I just kept my eyes on Eri, her stress and depression all about how Shiki keeps waiting for me.. Damn it, I'm starting to feel bad..

"Ignoring me huh? Well fine." He smirked, "Let's get started shall we?" He activated the sigil and I watched him disappear into the other plane.

I armed myself with a force round pin, reaching around for it in my pockets. I pulled it out and attatched it to my hat. Pulling out a few more I attatched them to different articles of clothing as well. In the past I had a nack for losing pins when I get into battle, I would either drop them on the floor or they'd be knocked out of my hands. Atleast now I can concentrate on a battle.

Elephant noise, my worst nightmare when it came to these things.. Immediately it stomped on to the ground, releasing a shock wave towards me. I dashed right through it and unleashed a flurry of jabs with a Stellar Flurry pin. I landed the final available blow with the Stellar Flurry pin, only to be tossed back by the Noise's trunk.

I pushed myself back off the ground, I tapped a pin which was attached to my left shoulder. I suddenly disappeared, the elephant searched the area for me, unable to find me it started to unleash multiple shockwaves everywhere, I finally reappeared, hovering above the elephant, bringing my arm down like a spear I sliced into it. My Grave Marker pin. It had become one of my favourate pins when I randomly picked it up after a battle with some kangaroo noise. I was partially distracted as I took hit from the elephant's trunk, as I was blasted back again, crashing hard into the ground. I attempted to use my force round pin until I realised that my hat was knocked off on impact.

Another shock wave was about to end me when I saw that the noise was erased. "You're losing your edge, Radian." I saw Sho reappear before my eyes, picking up my hat and tossing it to me. I pushed myself off the ground and reached for the hat which he passed me. "I thought you were better than this." He smirked again. He looked at me as if I didn't do a thing in that battle.

"Shut it Pi-Face." I growled, putting the hat back onto my head. We'd pretty much erased the noise, I checked my hand to find that the timer was still going.

**10:59**

"Crap.. The timer's still going!" I shouted, wide-eyed. I looked back at Eri to see that more Noise had started to crowd around her. I checked the player pin again:

_Oh.. Shiki.. Why do you keep brushing me off..? I thought we were friends..._

"Looks like she's still hooked on this Shiki person." Sho sighed, crossing his arms. "Well, I guess the only way to fix this is to patch things up between this girl and her friend." I actually agreed for once, I nodded as I walked off to find Shiki; "But." I stopped suddenly, and turned to let Sho continue what he was saying. "If we leave her like this, this noise is gonna build up and it's gonna be a bitch to clean up later." Sho pointed his thumb over to Eri, who looked like she was attracting more and more noise by the second.

"What're you saying?" I queried, he obviously had a plan, but I don't exactly have the same thoughts as him. "We find Shiki and clean this up, we're done." If only it was that simple.

"We're still gonna have to clean up the noise afterwards, and it's better to take on a few instead of a lot at once." Huh, he's actually thinking this through? "You go find whoever this 'friend' of hers is, and I'll take care of the noise here."

"What!? Is that possible!?" I had a feeling that it would have come to this... "We'd both get sent into battle wouldn't we!?"

"Not exactly, up to now, you and your partners have been activating Noise Sigil's together, meaning you both get tossed into battle. But when only one activates it while the other is in a different area, the one who activated the Noise Sigil fights solo, but takes the full brunt of every shot."

"..Full brunt?"

"The damage we've been receiving has been getting shared between us. So if only one of us goes into battle, that person's gonna be taking a hell of alot of damage." He took a breath. "But when the other person jumps back into battle, you take on half of whatever the your partner's been taking, and he or she is healed by that much." He shrugged, "That's the simple explanation I can give to a simple minded Radian like yourself."

He couldn't be serious, I looked back at the timer on my hand:

**9:48**

Ugh, we wasted a minute just discussing this.. "You sure about this?" I asked Sho, I didn't want to have my partner die on me while I go check up on an old friend.

"Just get going already. I needed a work out anyways." He smirked. His optimism is strangely uplifting, despite the fact that his smirk still pisses me off.

"Fine." I turn and start moving towards the Hachiko statue, knowing Shiki she'd probably still be there.

Sure enough she was there, just sitting down, leaning on the side of the statue. I can't stand to see her like this... I took out my phone, planning to imprint a message. I typed in a meme and aimed it at her.

**WILDKAT**

I saw her jerk up a bit, she was probably wondering why the Wildkat suddenly came to mind. Hopefully she would get my hint and start heading there.. Fortunately for me, she stood up and started walking in it's direction.

I ran ahead of her, making my way to the WildKat before she did.

I stood outside of it's doors, looking in. I could see Mr. H behind the counter, I entered silently, and walked up to the counter, waving him closer to me. "Hey, welcome to my little cafe, how can I help you?" I lift the cap up a bit, so that he could see my face. "Neku?" He looked slightly taken aback. "Like the new duds, big change from your usual stuff." He smiled. I kept my face straight, and soon his smile started to disappear as well. "You're back in the game, aren't you?" I nodded silently. "Well, four times is quite the feat. I wish you good luck this time around."

"Thanks, but do me a favour." He moved in closer to hear me better, "You don't know me at all, I'm not from around here, and I'm nobody special." He looked confused, but started to understand when Shiki entered.

"Ah, Shiki, welcome back." I turned to see her enter, remembering I didn't want her to know who I was, I quickly turned back to face Mr. H

"Hello again.. Mr. Hanekoma." She sighed, sitting down at a table. I decided to keep my hat low, so that my face wouldn't be recognised. Although I did decide to keep my hood down. "Mr. Hanekoma..."

"What's up Shiki?" He asked, walking over to her table from behind the counter. "Anything bothering you?"

"Have... You seen Neku around lately?" I turned at this, though not making myself obvious, I watched the two from the corner of my eye. "I suddenly wanted to come here as well, and I don't know what's going on anymore.. Neku should be fine now right? We beat the composer and everything.."

Mr. H stopped for a bit, stood up straight and crossed his arms. "I'm sure he's just fine." He smiled, I felt relieved that I could always be able to trust CAT. "Well, I've got other customers to tend to, so I'll be back in a bit."

Once Mr. H left her, I checked my timer:

**3:58**

Damn it.. running out of time. I walked over to Shiki's table, she didn't notice me as she played with the table cloth for a bit. I sat down opposite her; "Oh- It's you, from yesterda-" I couldn't let her finish, I was running short on time.

"You have a friend waiting in Mocai. 1 minute or (I'll) face erasure." I know that it was a bad idea to use a UG reference.. but I really had no choice, it was the only that would get her attention. I stood up and walked out of the cafe, Shiki running right after me. She tried to reach for me before I passed the door, and I used this time to turn to her and mouth an 'I'm sorry' before disappearing into nothing.

She looked all around her, finally taking off towards Mocai. I only hope that Sho is holding up on his end. I dashed back as well, moving as fast as I could I noticed that I passed Shiki on the way.

I got back to find that the noise was still in the area, I activated the Sigil and brought myself into battle. Instantly I felt so much pain all around me. Was this the pain that Sho was going through while I was gone!? "How're you holding up?" I shouted as I saw Kangaroo and frog noise appearing everywhere.

"I can keep trashing these guys with no problem." I heard him shout back. I smirked to myself, tapping my Stellar Flurry pin. I unleashed everything I had into the Kangaroo noise, erasing them all in one go. Sho must have weakened them by a lot if they went down this fast. I was switching targets to the Frog noise when one of them managed to kick me back. I flipped myself in the air to land back on my feet and fired my force round bullets into them. The wave of enemies slowly started to disappear. "Like I said, no problem." Sho laughed as he started to reappear. "Looks like you've held up your end of the plan too." She pointed over at Eri and Shiki, who were now staring at each other.

I turned towards them, watching them, it wasn't my business so I didn't want to listen in on them. I looked over at the timer on my hand:

**00:10**

Damn it... it's almost out..

**00:09**

Come on..

**00:08**

I guess we just weren't fast enough, I looked over at Sho, who had a straight face through all of this. I looked down a the timer again.

**00:02**

In the last second I saw them stand up and hug one another. They looked so content.. So happy.. I watched as my timer had stopped exactly on **00:00**

A bead of sweat dropped from my forehead. "Hahaha, that was pretty close huh?" Sho walked over and slapped me on the back. I smirked for a moment.

"Yeah.. I guess it was.." I stepped away. "Don't start getting buddy-buddy on me just yet Pi-Face." I smirked. I looked back at the pair who walked away together, smiling to each other. My curiousity got the better of me and I flipped my Player Pin.

_It's good to have you back... Shiki.._

I couldn't help but let a smile creep onto my face, lowering my hat so that Sho wouldn't notice it. "Well, whatever. I haven't helped other people out in a long-ass time. Feels weird to just suddenly get back into it."

I look over at Sho who was smiling to himself, and I turned back to the other two.

Friendship... Really is a weird thing..

End of Day 2

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**Right, well I have a question for those of you reading. Would you like me to put in a Point of View for Sho? Or should I just keep it as Neku's Point of View?**

**Please answer back in a review, Thanks.**


	3. Day 3 part 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of The World Ends With You characters or it's original plot line. I give credit to their respective owners.**

**A/N: Alrighty, by majority of reviews (only 3 in total on the topic, thanks guys.) Sho's Point of View will be available; if you'd like me to change it back, just tell me in a review, Thanks!**

**...Jeeze it took me a long time to get this one out. Quite a few months just to get one chapter out is a new record for me. Oh well, I've had alot of things to deal with, like school. But I'm hoping to pick up the pace when the next chapter is going to be written.**

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Day 3: Rainfall

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**NEKU**

**--**

I opened my eyes to pure darkness, I couldn't see anything at all.

What's going on?

I felt my way around the surrounding area and found a wall. I glided my fingers across it to find a switch, I slipped my right hand over the handle and I flipped it to have the entire room light up, I winced from the sudden brightness forcing my eyes shut to protect them. I sighed as I slowly opened my eyes; only to see Pi-Face appear from out of no where, shouting 'boo' into my face.

Out of reflex; I punched him.

Or atleast, that's what I told him.

"What the hell Radian!" He rubbed his cheek where my fist made contact. "So zetta edgy.. Mission mail's not even here yet and already you want to start up a fight."

"Where are we?" I asked, stretching from my sleep, ignoring his remark. "This place looks kind of familiar.."

"Any Hectopascal can figure out we're in A-East. This is the Stage here idn't it?" I decided to ignore the name calling for a while. "Hey, check it out." He pointed over to a black hooded reaper. "Looks like there's a wall around here." I looked over to the reaper he was pointing to, he watched us the entire time. Since the mission mail was yet to arrive at our phones, I'm guessing he's just getting ready for today. I waved, trying to get his attention, but he just continued to stay silent.

"Figures he won't communicate." I sighed to myself as I dropped my arm. At that point, my phone went off, yet Sho's didn't. We were puzzled as I fished out my phone to see what the message was, Sho reading along with me over my shoulder.

"_Only one player will receive this message;_

_If that player is you, then pay attention._

_On the last day, all hell will break loose in the game._

_Not only will Reapers be able to attack you directly._

_They can attack those in the RG as well._

_You've been warned._

_-GM"_

My stomach churned as I read the message.

Reaper's are able to attack those in the RG now!?

"What the hell...?" Sho and I blurted out of instinct.

"Looks like this won't be a walk in the park." He sighed with a stern face. I've only seen him with this face once, and that was after he got taken down by Joshua, lying under that heap of garbage. "Well, this just makes things alittle bit more interesting." He started grinning, I sweatdropped at this.

This guy's more of an odd ball than I originally thought.

"Whatever the case, our mission should be here soon."

Right on cue, the mission mail had arrived, I opened up my phone again to read the message, Sho did the same.

"_Light up the stage,_

_  
Take the spotlight._

_Silence the noise._

_240 minutes, fail and face erasure._

_-The Reapers"_

"Is that it?" I wondered aloud. I pondered the mission for the moment, we were in the only stage in A-East, and I doubt that there is another one anywhere else in Shibuya, unless there was something I missed..

"Well, we're in the stage right now, plus the lights are on, so I'm guessing the mission's close to done." Sho stated, I soon realized that all that was left was to scan for noise. "Too zetta easy." He smirked to himself. Snapping his fingers, he pulled out his player pin with his other hand from his shirt pocket. I too pulled out my player pin, scanning the area around me.

Huh?

It's like a replay of yesterday.. I can't find the noise anywhere..

"Jeeze, Deja vu" Sho growled, he stomped his way towards the reaper in the corner, expecting answers. "Hey! Where the factor are all the noise!?" The reaper flinched a bit, either he hadn't been a reaper long, or he had been there when Sho was the cause of all the Taboo noise.

"T-there aren't any here.." The reaper squeaked, "Y-you'll have to answer my questions if you want answers."

"Questions huh?" Sho backed off a bit, crossing his arms he stared intently at the reaper. "So, you're the reaper review guy." This confused me for a bit.

"Aren't the reaper review guys usually in red?" I queried, noticing the sudden change in colour. "Or has there been a change in the system?"

The reaper looked like he was about to say something when Sho cut him off; "Whatever, all these zeroes look the same to me. Besides, most of these guys were iterated when the O-pins took over." Sho smirked to himself again, that face still annoyed me, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.

"Umm.." The reaper tried to get a word in edgewise. "Can I start my questions?" He watched us cautiously. I nodded, allowing him to start.

Sho had left the question answering to me as he wondered off someplace, I only realized halfway through the reaper review.

--

**SHO**

--

I left the proxy to the questions, all the mathematical logic in the world is stored in my head, not useless trivia. I stepped outside of A-East and into Dogenzaka,

I made my way into the Ramen Don, a player has to eat, and well; I've got the time to do it. We were given four hours to complete a simple clearing mission, seemed like the current GM is slacking off, but not like me; I had a secret agenda.

I was busy summoning Taboo Noise. I took a seat at the counter, slurping away at the freshly made noodles. The smell was kinda odd, but it still tasted pretty good. "Give me another bowl, and this time less soup!" Within seconds my second bowl was infront of me, my previous one vanished into thin air. Either that or the noodle guy picked it up already. "Itadakimasu!"

Bwah, I'm 4/4 full, I can't take another bite. I payed the total and left, finding the little proxy running towards me in his reaper suit. "So, how'd it go?" I asked him, my usual smirk on my face.

"You're an ass, Pi-Face." The proxy growled at me, he'll get over it eventually. "You left me there to answer to the reaper review on my own!" I laughed and crossed my arms.

"Come on now Proxy, you can answer a few questions without me having to hold your hand during it." I taunted, breaking into a grin from my smirk.

"Or do you really need me that much?" I teased him, leaning forwards. I could see by his clenched fist that he wanted to hit me. Badly. Sure enough he threw his fist forwards, seeing as I calculated the chance of this happening, I caught his fist before he could make contact. "I had a feeling you'd do that."

His face was lowered, his eyes shadowed by his hair and hat. "Just die." He said clearly, no sense of emotion in his voice. I was partially taken aback. I was expecting him to shout at me, not to say it calmly. "I just want you to die. I want you to rot. I want every bit of hatred I have ever felt for society passed on to you."

"Your words hit me like a rock." I stated, I noticed he was surprised by this. "Too bad they were just as big as a pebble." I crossed my arms again, "I honestly don't really care about how you feel about me, and I don't give a factor that you want me dead. All I want is the position as composer." My motive was still the same, after all this time, ever since I had first entered the game..

"So, you're still after it? Even after Joshua and I completely defeated you and yet let you live. You still want that position?" I nodded proudly, keeping my arms crossed, I started walking back towards A-East with a smug look plastered on my face.

"So, any news on our AWOL Noise from that reaper?" I asked calmly, leaving Neku in the dust. I could hear his rapid footsteps, trying to keep up with me.

"...Yeah, seems like we've got to lure them into the stage arena." He said, a growl hidden beneath his voice. "Any ideas?" I could hear his voice slowly go back to normal as I could hear him mumbling to himself.

"I've got one, The Noise is attracted to negative emotions, right? If my calculations are correct- Which they always are- All we need is someone with negative emotions."

Simple and easy. Just the way the world works.

--

**NEKU**

--

"Well, if you want to find such a person, be my guest. I really don't want to have to trek the entire of Shibuya just to find some emo kid." I pouted, crossing my arms. "Since I've been doing most of the work today, you find him. Or her."

"Well, if I was looking for an emo kid, I'd be looking right at one" Sho taunted, shrugging to himself. "Too bad they're not attracted to players." I felt myself about to make retort when I felt a pat on my right cheek, the slight pat caused me to look up.

Rain.

The small droplets of water fell into my open palm, as I layed it open staring into the every greying sky. I too looked upwards towards the now-darkened sky. The clouds flashing on their own, the crackle of thunder falling not so far behind. "..A storm?" I took cover under the roof of Lapin Angelique across the street from the arena before I could get soaked. I sighed to myself as I watched Sho take cover underneath the stage's roof.

I used to love the rain, watching the droplets land on my window while I lay in bed, listening to the pitter patter they make as they make contact. But something about the rain has an effect on me now, maybe because I'm a player? I thought back to my past weeks, never once had it rained until now. I always found that weird as the sky would go dark, but no rain would follow through. The droplet ran down the side of my palm, leaving behind a trail. From what I could see; the colour in my hand was starting to fade, could it be because of my eyesight?

The clerk at Lapin Angelique eyed me. Princess K, I think her name was, she sported the same clothes that she did during my first three weeks, topped off with her small lolita top hat.

"...What?" I muttered, "Is there something on me?" I noticed her eyes scanning me, but mainly aiming her gaze at my hand. I picked up on her curiousity and glanced down as well. I gasped inwardly, I stared down into the palm of my hand, the colour was in fact fading, and it wasn't my imagination. I quickly tucked it into my jacket pocket; hiding the sight from others. "T-this... is nothing." I said, clearing my voice, "It's just a little ailment.. Really." I kept my panicked eyes shadowed from under my hat and hair.

"...You might want to get that checked out." Luckily for me she decided not to pry into the situation. I pulled down the hood on my jacket, ruffling the water out of my hair as I removed the cap from my head. "So, can I help you with anything?" Her voice called out from behind the counter, I looked back at her from my position.

"N..No, it's fine, I just needed some shelter from the rain." I forced the panic out of my voice as I stared out the store window. Sho looked as if he'd disappeared, he wasn't standing where he was earlier. In fact, he wasn't anywhere at all.

I panicked for a moment, I looked at my hand again, it was somewhat pale but it looked fine. My hand felt partially numb where the raindrop had trailed, but my ability to move my fingers was still there. That's a good start.

--

**SHO**

--

Crap.. It's raining, the rain's bad news to us players, good thing I was nearby some cover. Everytime a rain drop hits us, it 'purifies' us, or so I'm told. Absolute crap; the stuff's an express lane to erasure. I wandered further into the stage since I didn't have anything else to do. I leaned on the wall as I noticed the reaper was gone; he must have left while I was still in Dogenzaka.

My head turned as I heard footsteps near the entrance. A group entered as they shook off the rain from themselves. "Ah.. I'm all soaked.." The young blond girl said to herself as she took off her black beanie, wringing the water out of it. "Brother, aren't you cold?"

"Naw, I'm tough as nails." The older blond cheered, "ACHOO!" He groaned as he rubbed his nose. The younger girl merely sighed deeply.

Heh, looks like it's that Radian again. Hmm.. 'Beat' was his name if I remember correctly.. The proxy's last partner before me. By the looks of things, they couldn't see me. That's fine with me.

I reached into my pocket, pulling out my phone and typed in a meme 'Neku' I pointed my phone at the two as I began to imprint. I watched as the older of the two siblings reacted first, he perked his head up as he shook his head left to right, looks like he's got the message. He's trying to find me.

"..Rhyme.." He whispered softly "...Did you get that too..?" He looked down at his younger sister, she nodded in response. He moved towards the entrance of the stage as he stared out at the rain. He sighed out loud, "I hope 'Phones is gonna be okay." After a while his younger sister stood beside him, her orange sleeves covering her small hands.

"..Can we really assume that Neku's in the game?" She asked quietly, "I mean.. Just because we haven't seen him in a while, doesn't mean-"

"He's in." Beat interrupted, "I can feel it. All I know is that he'd better come back by the end of the week, yo." He stayed silent for a while, as he turned back towards the stage and sat down, leaning on the wall. "C'mon Rhyme, this rain ain't gonna let up, so let's wait it out." He smiled at his sister as she returned his smile, taking a seat next to him.

Tch, Whatever, I've got nothing to do either, so I'll just take a seat down here too. I ran through the multiplication table as I waited for the rain to stop, it grew heavier as it wailed down on the roof of the stage.

I guess this day's just gettin' started.


	4. Day 3 part 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of The World Ends With You characters or its original plot line. I give credit to their respective owners.**

**A/N: So, like, apparently I have indescribable levels of procrastination in my body. **

* * *

**Day 3 (Part 2): Take the Stage**

**NEKU**

I watched my reflection in the window, the condensation fogged up the glass as the rain outside continued to fall. I turned my back towards it and leaned on it as I sighed heavily. There were only two other customers apart from myself in this store, but by the looks of things they were only here to avoid the rainfall as well. I took off my cap and scratched the back of my head as I thought about how to go about finishing the mission. I fished out my phone from my pocket as I stared at the screen:

"_Light up the stage,_

_Take the spotlight._

_Silence the noise._

_240 minutes, fail and face erasure._

_-The Reapers"_

My head ached as I thought about the consequences of if I would fail. Sudden erasure doesn't seem like the best plan here. Not to mention Princess K is still staring at me.

"Sorry, I'm not gonna browse around, I'm just here to wait out the rain." I said loudly, enough for the clerk to hear. She then sighed as she left to go to the back room. I paced back and forth while the rain outside began to lighten.

Now was probably the best time to make a break for it. I prepared myself as I opened the door; I counted down in my head from 3 and steadied my breath. In retrospect, the distance across the street wasn't that big, but for some reason, the other side of the street seemed further. I took a step out and as soon as I felt the first droplet of water on the top of my hat I broke into a sprint. With every drop of water that hit me, I felt that I was getting weaker and weaker. This wasn't normal, I know that much, the rain really does have something to do with my status then. I finally reached the other side as I shook the water off my body.

–

**SHO**

–

I felt my eyelids getting heavier, I had to stay awake. As soon as the rain let up, I was getting out of here. The brother sister love over here was starting to irritate me. These Radians should probably be getting out of here too. I don't want to look at the timer; it'd just mock me, telling me to haul it. I probably wouldn't make it though; no player would be dumb enough to try to run through this rain... And that's when The Proxy came running in. Alright, I'll accept being wrong this time around. "I see you noticed that rain's no-no for us players." I smirked as he snarled at me, shaking the water off his body; he obviously hadn't noticed the Skull Siblings dozing away behind him.

"A little warning would have been nice Pi-Face." He growled, his eyes were piercing, keeping them focused on me. "This timer isn't gonna wait for us, we gotta haul it, now." The Proxy was getting impatient, already turning away. I suppose he would have noticed the Skull Siblings by now, though I don't think he actually realizes who they are. The lights here had already dimmed a bit, and his sight has probably been messed with by the rain.

"Well then, let's get the factor out of here." I pushed myself up, and walked towards him, "Looks like the rain has let up too. That's good for us." I could tell that he wasn't feeling too good. Just to way he held himself up was somewhat limp. Of course, I wanted to see how far he could go despite his condition.

We stepped out into the street; the rain had cleared, though the wind was still somewhat strong. "We still need to find that noise." The Proxy sighed, as he probably started thinking about how to drive it into the building. Then of course, I had a plan already formulating in my genius mind.

**NEKU**

Heaper shot me a look, I could tell right away that it was a bad sign, of course I needed to trust him if I wanted to get through this week. The only thing we had left to do was find a way to attract the noise; however, I doubt that it'll be that easy considering the fact that I couldn't find anything while I was scanning a while ago.

..But we never tried scanning where there were large amounts of people… Hell, Dogenzaka didn't have that many people on it when I scanned there either! At this point I could feel myself going into a sprint, leaving the Heaper calling out for me to 'wait up'.

I found myself panting as I reached The Scramble Crossing, it seems that there was a huge crowd here; I walked around them, trying to estimate at least how many of them were here, just crowding around… a performer, apparently. I had only just noticed that the one man was in the centre of their horseshoe of an audience area, he didn't look familiar whatsoever, and it seems that he was singing his own songs; I've never heard this music before. After evaluating the area enough, I pulled out my player pin, and sure enough, the noise was there. "I see you found it." I turned to face the Heaper as he finally caught up with me. "Let's clear this up fast." He smirked as he prepared to go into battle, I stopped him before he could though, something wasn't right.

"Hold on there, Pi-Face, remember what the mission mail said? Light up the stage, and take the spotlight. There's got to be more to it than to fight them here." I assumed that the battle had to take place at A-East. Otherwise it wouldn't have made sense; the mission is definitely linked to that place.

"Well what do you think then?" The Heaper glared, probably disappointed that he wasn't able to get to any action yet. "You want to substitute this guy into your A-East equation?" I ignored the math lingo for a bit as I stared down the street performer. Low hat, shades, polo, don't recognize him whatsoever. "Maybe you can imprint him." The Heaper suddenly suggested, though the thought of it had come up, I wasn't sure if it would be enough to get him to move. I guess it was worth a shot.

**SHO**

There we go, the Proxy listened to me, and maybe if I can keep this up I can get him to start doing my laundry. Though that fantasy would have to wait; I took out my own phone and read over the mission mail again. 'Take the spotlight' doesn't have to necessarily mean a performer; does it? I bet I could very well get the Proxy to get up on that stage if I had the means.

I looked up from my phone to see that the street performer had stopped and began to make his way towards A-East, his rather large fanbase left behind wondering what he was doing. The performer didn't say anything; rather it was like he accepted the imprint immediately without question. This was rather interesting.

After a while, the crowd dispersed, people walking by and through us, most following the performer, the others continued on their way as if he hadn't been there to begin with. I started after the large crowd, the proxy in tow.

**NEKU**

Well he's moving to say the least.

We finally reached the stage as we passed through the crowd towards the front of the stage. There he was, that performer was up on stage, though I'm not too sure how he managed to hook up the microphone on his own. Whatever the case it didn't concern us as long as he attracted a crowd. Lo and behold the crowd started filling up as we waited for a few minutes. We still couldn't be seen, so we decided to wait up on the rafters so that we could get a better view of the area. I pulled my headphones back up over my ears as I prepared my player pin. Flipping it into the air I caught it, letting my mind hone in on the crowd.

Just as I expected, the noise was everywhere.

**SHO**

He's impatient, of course I can understand why. Timer is counting down and we've only got one chance at this. I stared at the player pin as he flicked it upwards, catching it in the palm of his hand. I adjusted my hat as I prepared mine as well. "Well, let's get started" I said casually, picking out a Noise Sigil to activate. "Let's see how many we can chain in one go." The second the sigil activated, I watched as the Proxy disappeared into the air. I stayed on the rafters as I would assume he would go down onto the stage for his fight. I cracked my knuckles as I watched a swarm of bat noise appear in front of me, sighing heavily I kept one hand holding the rim of my hat, while with my other I aimed at some stray wires. "Bring it."

**NEKU**

I scratched the back of my head as I appeared on stage, no one could see the noise, nor could they see me. Though they're still watching that performer on stage right in front of me; I suppose they won't mind if I deal with this over here.

My eyes strayed from the audience towards some bat noise, tapping the Force Round pin on my hat I launched a few shots towards the swarm, making them disperse, I dashed forwards with as much force as I could, taking down the closest noise to me, ending it with a slash of my Mus Rattus pin. I jumped back as the swarm joined again and charged at the spot where I just was. Using this chance I used a Grave Marker pin and warped myself above the group, bringing my arm down into the middle of the group, though I managed to erase the middle of the group, I span around in a circle and swiped the rest of them back. I'm staggering, I don't know why, but I'm staggering. The rain must have affected me a little more than I thought it would. "Damn it." I cursed out loud, trying to hold my ground in the middle of a circle of bats, I can only hope that Sho is doing better than I am.

**SHO**

I brought my fingers across the group as if slashing at them with a claw, the stray wires following the flow of my hand whipped in suit. I figured it wasn't enough as I discarded the wires, taking my hand of my hat momentarily, placing it back on the rim as I aimed my other hand at a discarded speaker, I pulled my hand towards me as the speaker hovered over to my location, I thrusted my hand out at the noise, spreading my fingers as the speaker emitted a low booming sound, being bats, the noise couldn't handle the sound and began to go into a frenzy, attacking each other and becoming stunned. "There's got to be more than just you." I said to them, the fight was too easy, simple bat noise couldn't possibly require a 240 minute time limit, there had to be some sort of extra boss battle or something following afterwards. I switched my weapon again as I went back to the wires, "Where's your damn significant figure!" I shouted as a slashed the wires across them.

**NEKU**

Before long, the bat noise were gone. Thankfully I could still stand up straight, though I was almost knocked down by a loud screech aimed directly towards me. Their leader had arrived. "About time you showed yourself." I shouted back, "I was starting to get bored" I bluffed, trying not to show fatigue as I reached for a Stellar Fury pin.

_Come on me, don't lose out now. _I thought to myself, preparing to move at a moment's notice. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a hint of red, at the same time a gust of wind pummeled at me from that same direction, I covered my arms over my face to shield myself from the strong winds. Before long I found myself face to face with a huge bat noise, staring me down with its crimson eyes. "What's wrong? Feel bad I hurt your kids?" I taunted. Not the smartest thing I've ever done. I stumbled back as I tried to dodge a swipe from the bat noise, narrowly missing it by only a bit. I rolled backwards and back onto my feet. I fired Force Rounds at it, knowing that going in for close range tactics would most likely get me killed, and seeing as I'm not exactly in the best of health at the moment. I managed to injure it, but only a little, its wings managed to block the rest of my shots from hitting anything vital. I repeated this process, hoping to do a little more, but its wings are too much for my Force Rounds to punch through. Somehow, I needed to distract it. I looked up catching a glimpse of one of the working spotlights out of the corner of my eye.

**SHO**

Tch, too zetta easy. I completely finished off the rest of the noise without a problem, though I couldn't see anything else. I leaned over the railing to try to catch a view of where some other noise could be coming from. I saw an oversized lurching figure flashing in and out of existence. Definitely intriguing. I watched this figure for a moment, it looked like a large bat, but the figure kept appearing and disappearing, like a glitch in reality. It moved around in darkness so I assume that's where it's at its strongest.

Monster in a dark place and right next to me is a spot light. It ain't too tough to put two and two together, especially if you're an accomplished math genius like me. "Time for your time in the limelight." I whispered to it as I aimed the spotlight at it, illuminating the golden creature, it started to go into a frenzy; like its smaller counterparts, but it seemed like it was taking damage from something. I can only assume that this is the same creature that The Proxy is fighting right now. I concentrated the light on it, remembering what the mission had said about 'taking the spotlight'. I smirked as I knew that it had to come down to something like this somehow.

**NEKU**

"HA!" I yelled as I finished it off with my Stellar Fury pin, completely knocking the noise into the ground after a final punch. I panted heavily, trying to catch my breath, by a complete stroke of luck The Heaper must have figured out what to do and helped me out.

I guess he can be pretty helpful sometimes. I sighed as I watched the Noise fade into nothingness. Sho reappeared next to me, a smug smile on his face. "I see you figured it out." He laughed, "Aren't you lucky you've got a genius like me helping ya? You would've been trashed by that thing if I didn't notice its weakness to light."

"..Wait, weakness to light? I thought the light was just blinding it." I scratched the back of my head, I didn't like feeling ignorant, but I wasn't in the right state to argue. "This is what it meant by spotlight isn't it?" I finally realized after a while. I looked over at Sho who simply nodded at me.

"Alrighty, so, mission complete, eh?" Sho smiled, shoving his hands in his pockets, "plenty of time to spare too." Sho said, glancing at his now-stopped timer. "Wonder why they gave us so much time. Not like we needed all of it." I sat at the edge of the stage, letting my legs dangle over the side as the performer packed up. The crowd in front of us had already started to leave, leaving only that performer, Sho and myself. After packing away his guitar, he stood. Facing us. "…Can he see us?" Sho suddenly asked, I wondered the same thing as it seemed like he was looking right at us.

"Congrats." He said, "You've completed your mission." I quickly got up from my sitting spot and stood facing him, Sho crossed his arms as he glared at him. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you." He laughed as he lifted his hat. The man looked considerably young, no older than Sho maybe. "Neku Sakuraba." He said as his eyes pointed at me, "And… Sho Minamimoto" he continued as his eyes drifted over to him, Sho merely glared back, not saying anything. "It's quite an honour, meeting a third time player. And a Former-GM." I tensed up at this, he knew of the game, and what's more, he knew who we were.

"…Who are you?" I finally asked, hovering my right hand over my Grave Marker pin. "And how do you know who we are?"

"Hah, of course, my apologies." The man laughed, lowering his hat again, that smirk of his still visible. "I'm the new GM."


End file.
